Halloween (and a Look Back)
by Aviaries
Summary: It's Halloween time in Briarwood and Vida's reminded of just how far they'd come.


**Rootcore**

"Nice costume, V."

Vida gave Xander a wink and laughed. "It's fitting no?" She spun, letting her black cape float as she turned. _Vampire_.

"Callback to our adventures?"

"Heck yeah."

Vida was dressed like a vampire for Halloween this year. She thought the idea was hilarious considering her short stint as a force of darkness. Her fake fangs weren't nearly as convincing. And besides. _They glow in the dark_. She had laughed at that fact when she read the label.

"It's cool that there are real vampires in Briarwood now, isn't it?"

Vida nodded. "Now that the vampires have access to some blood from blood drives, they're pretty happy with the climate. No big fights, everyone's getting along. We've come a long way."

Some part of Vida had felt bad when there was initial worry about the vampire population. Necrolai hadn't exactly been a very good queen. The vampires didn't want to join the forces of darkness, preferring to be on their own. So when Necrolai caused some fear around vampires, they hid. When they finally came out, armed with their parasols and SPF, Vida had tried to be as welcoming as she could. She remembered being a vampire, and she remembered how her team had treated her. They tried to do their best for her, but… it was hard to know they treated her like she had some sort of disease.

"That we have," Xander said, breaking her thoughts, "If you'd turned vampire right now, I don't think anyone would have minded."

"Ha."

Xander was wearing what Vida could only describe as a toga with gold cord. He had some armor set on the table.

"Gladiator, this year?"

"You know it."

"Are you being historically accurate?"

"Probably not. But I didn't want to be a mummy or anything. Can't hide my rugged good looks," he said with a smirk.

Vida pushed him aside as Chip and Clare ran in, laughing.

 _Hogwarts robes._

"What do you think," Clare asked excitedly. She was waving around a wand that Vida knew Chip had worked on into last night. "I'm Luna Lovegood!"

Well, that was true. Clare was wearing those weird glasses things and she looked pretty close to the part, if not a bit old. Vida knew that Chip had taken her out into the city a few days ago when they were looking for the robes.

" _There's nothing for Ravenclaw out there," Clare complained when they got back, "I just wanted some robes to wear."_

" _It's too bad," Chip said. "And there might even be less merch for Hufflepuffs. You're definitely a Hufflepuff."_

Chip was standing next to her, grinning at her excitement. He was dressed, surprisingly, as Neville, a sword in his hand.

"I thought you were going to be Ron," Vida said. "You know, the hair."

"Nah. I thought this would be fun. Besides, Neville is the big hero that kills Nagini," he said proudly. "I get to carry around this sword!"

He raised the sword up. Some jewels caught the light and they glimmered.

"Very fancy," Vida said. "Do you know where Maddie and Nick have gone?"

"They're picking up Leelee from work. Maddie's taking my jeep from here to the tree outside The Rockporium so we can get home at a decent hour tonight."

Xander raised an eyebrow. Vida swatted him in the arm. "My sister can drive my jeep. You can't."

"But the ladies'll love a jeep."

"They'll probably like it less when they find out it belongs to a female friend."

Xander just shrugged as they heard some laughter and footsteps. Nick and Maddie were practically pushing Leelee into the main room.

"Leelee, what?"

Leelee was wearing black pants and a black crop top under a leather jacket. At her side was a stake of wood. "It was my mom's ironic idea. She thinks it's stupid what mortals think will kill a vampire so she jokingly suggested I go as a vampire hunter."

Chip shot her a thumb up in approval. "Nice."

"And what are you guys?"

Nick and Maddie laughed. Nick was wearing what appeared to be a prince's outfit and Maddie was wearing a blue and black dress that Vida thought looked vaguely familiar.

"I'm apparently Prince Eric from that mermaid Disney movie," Nick said, laughing.

Vida wanted to laugh so hard. Maddie hadn't even mentioned this idea. But her sister as Ariel?

"You don't have the red hair, sis," she commented.

Maddie just shrugged and said, "do you really think it would look good on me? Besides, we're not really getting candy, are we? No one really has to know who we are."

"We're not getting candy?" Xander looked disappointed, which Vida was pretty sure was just an act.

"You can always have some of whatever we have left," Leanbow said, walking in. He was carrying a cauldron (a clean, empty one, Nick was sure) filled with candies that Nick had bought in town. Udonna followed him with a laugh. Nick noted that neither of them had decided to join in the costume festivities.

"You guys didn't want to do costumes?" Chip asked, saving Nick the trouble.

Leanbow chuckled and replied, "no. I think we'll leave that to you kids. We're a bit old for that sort of thing."

"Then why do you have all the candy," Vida asked.

"It's for the children in the forest," Udonna explained. "After the townspeople began telling the forest folk about the candy aspect of Halloween, the children have been begging to do this… trick-or-treating activity."

"Sounds reasonable." Nick shrugged. "Are the kids going to be dressed up as anything?"

"Actually," Udonna began, "they were all talking about dressing up as human occupations. It sounded quite amusing. One of the younger fairy girls was telling me she wanted to dress up like a dentist."

"That's adorable," Maddie commented.

"Where are you all headed," Leanbow asked.

"We're headed out to a party at The Rockporium," Chip said. "There's going to be an awesome DJ there tonight," he said, winking at Vida.

"Speaking of this party, we'd better go. Starts soon,"

"Well, you have fun," Leanbow called as they started for the door.

Nick smiled and waved off, "sure thing!"

When they all got outside Rootcore, Nick took Maddie's hand and they went through the closest tree. Chip and Clare went next, followed by Vida, and then Xander who took Leelee's hand.

The party was definitely underway when they got there. Lights were going off, and it was even spilling out onto the street. A few chairs were set up and someone had even brought a folding picnic table. Music was already going, some fun Halloween jams, and there was a mix of forest food and human food.

Leelee saw her mom and Toby just inside and headed for them. Maddie and Nick waved over to Nick's sister, whom Maddie had met a few times. She called them over and they left. Vida watched them, happy that her sister was happy. Xander saw a girl he'd been seeing for a few weeks and excused himself to go talk to her. And then there was Chip, Vida, and Clare.

"Do you want to hang out with us until you have to DJ?" Chip asked.

Vida shook her head. "Why don't you two go after the desserts that you've been talking about for weeks," Vida suggested. There was no resistance. Chip and Clare had headed over and Clare was pointing out some forest food and Chip was showing her some moon pies, which Vida thought was hilarious. Moon pies, she had already decided, were disgusting.

Vida made her way inside to the music capital of Briarwood. Matoombo was there, doing an okay job as DJ. She took her place in front of the crowd, seeing a sea of creatures, human and not, and wanted to laugh about how far they'd come.


End file.
